TV Time: BTN trumps ESPN again with Penn State predictions

Penn State running back Bill Belton celebrates his touchdown during the second quarter at Kinnick Stadium. JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News

Just for the record, I did check in with all of the shows last week, but as expected with the bye week there was nary a mention of the Nittany Lions. Not so this week as the team returned to action in a prime time contest on the Big Ten Network. Here is how the folks in the major media covered Penn State before and after the enjoyable beat down of the Hawkeyes. How good a job they did is rated on a scale of 1 – 5.

ESPN College Gameday: Just when it appeared there would be no discussion of Penn State during the show's look at the games in the Big Ten, Desmond Howard stated Iowa / Penn State was off the radar but worthy of attention. He claimed it was a huge game for Iowa, tossed in some nice words about the Lions and concluded that he thought it would a hard fought game with Iowa winning. Traditional Penn State hater Lee Corso followed with “good they're at home.” What was the “good” Corso was referring to? Anybody? Bueller? This game was also included in the predictions at the end. The guest prognosticator was Olympic and University of Florida swimmer Ryan Lochte who cited Penn State's failure to win in Iowa City this millennium as a reason for picking the Hawkeyes. Corso said that was a nice pick and also went with Iowa. Shocking that Corso would go against the Nits. Maybe they should have listened to Kirk Herbstreit who predicted a Nittany Lion win adding that quarterback Matt McGloin and the defense will take care of Iowa. With McGloin throwing for 289 yards and 2 touchdowns, and the defense having the dominant night that they had, Herbstreit once again proves to be best of this crew. Rating: 3.9

BTN Football Pregame: Gary DiNardo goes in depth on Penn State's passing game specifically the tight ends. The break down focuses on the different ways the tight ends line up depending on down and distance. Often there will be 2 tight ends in the game but they position themselves off the line of scrimmage creating a spread formation. Overall, an informative piece. Next Howard Griffith focuses on the Lions' defense predicting the Hawkeyes will struggle to put up points in the game. Chris Martin takes it a step further stating Penn State has the most physical defense in the conference. Hard for me to be all good with Martin. In August, he was in full support of Illinois' Tim Beckman poaching attempts under the theory that it will keep talent in the Big Ten. All in the name of conference solidarity Prediction time with Martin and Griffith taking the Lions. Rating: 4.6

FOX College Saturday: It is only a thirty minute show with the primary focus on highlights and analyzing the upcoming games on FOX. With Penn State having an 8:00 pm kickoff, the only reference to the Nittany Lions was being lumped in with Ohio State and their ineligible status for the conference title. However, somebody did a great job rocking tight red pants and that somebody was not Eddie George. It wasn't Joey Harrington either. Rating: 1,000

ESPN College Football Final: Again, I understand that a game featuring two unranked opponents might not be worthy of highlights. However, Nebraska and Northwestern also were unranked and they got a highlight package. Wonder if that had something to do with the networks broadcasting the respective games? ESPN had the Cornhuskers and the Wildcats while BTN had Penn State. This might also explain why NASCAR's minor league circuit gets more attention then it deserves on that network in the Connecticut backwoods. Rating: 1.0 it would have been -409 until they showed the Penn State / Iowa score.

BTN Final Drive: With the Penn State / Iowa game being the featured game on the network, top billing was not a surprise The show opens with an extensive highlight package which is followed by the studio hosts of Dave Revsine, Martin, DiNardo, and Griffith. It is McLovin time with Martin as he praises McGloin's distribution of passes to 9 different receivers. Then in a statement sure to draw the ire of the McGloin haters, Martin called McGloin one of the best passers in college football. DiNardo continues on his pregame show theme of breaking down the passes to the tight ends. Some bold statements in final wrap around segment by Griffith as he called Penn State the most complete team in the Big Ten. The heads of radio talk show hosts in Ohio just exploded. Plenty of positive Penn State chatter during Final Drive capping off a great night for the Blue and White. Rating: 4.7